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TRICARE Expands Cancer Clinical Trials Demonstration

TRICARE Expands Cancer Clinical Trials Demonstration

August 01, 1998

TRICARE, the health plan for active duty military personnel (formerly
known as CHAMPUS), expanded its cancer clinical trials demonstration
so that beneficiaries could enter cancer prevention trials sponsored
by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The demonstration had
previously been limited to cancer treatment trials. The expansion,
effective in June, was somewhat of a last-ditch effort to entice more
TRICARE beneficiaries into the demonstration so that TRICARE could
obtain more data on which to base future decisions. Between January
1996 and August 1998, only 155 TRICARE beneficiaries enrolled in NCI
trials, and those were almost exclusively for bone marrow
transplants.

Of course, TRICARE has a much better record on covering patient costs
of participating in cancer clinical trials than almost any other
health plan. Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Connie Mack
(R-Fla.) have been trying for years to persuade Congress to pass a
bill authorizing a Medicare demonstration that would ensure coverage
of patient care costs. No bill has ever gotten out of a Senate
committee.

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